July 4 Patriot on the run amid conspiracy

Authorities are on the look-out in Oklahoma for Charles Dyer, the July 4 Patriot who was acquitted for possessing a grenade launcher but now wanted for rape.

Dyer, a retired Marine, was charged with both of those counts back in 2010. He and his supporters, however, say the rape allegations are part of a government conspiracy to imprison Dyer for his anti-American views.

Uploading videos to YouTube under the account “July4Patriot,” Dyer became famous for expressing an outlook questioning the authoritative agenda of modern America. In his clips he rallied against a repressive government and, in one upload, even says he is going to use his military training to “become one of those domestic terrorists that we’re so afraid of from the DHS.”

Dyer has pledged that he is a member of the Oath Keepers, an organization made up largely of law enforcement officers and military personnel and veterans who swear to uphold the Constitution. Stewart Rhodes, founder of Oath Keepers, has denied that Dyer is a member, though.

Stephens County Sheriff Wayne McKinney, however, says Dyers has ties to some “very radical groups.”

Regardless of his affiliation, the government has pegged Dyers as a criminal and he is now on the lam. His supporters say they are just trying to squash him for his views, however, and that the rape-charge is only being used to put him behind bars.

One moderator of the online forum for “A Well Regulated Militia” writes that the rape investigation appears to be a pretext into the “fishing expedition into Dyer’s life” carried out by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The author notes that, although Dyer had made inflammatory statements directed against the BATF and other government agencies, they are still protected under the First Amendment.

A mistrial in April left a jury unable to decide the fate of Dyer, but when the July 4 Patriot was expected in an Oklahoma courtroom on Monday, he never showed up. Since then the judge has ordered his bond revoked and has issued a $500,000 bench warrant for his arrest.

Sheriff McKinney has since told reporters that there is “no doubt” that Dyers is armed and willing to have a showdown with officials.

This statement from the Sheriff’s Department comes at the same time that US President Barack Obama is saying that “lone wolf” terrorists are the biggest threat to America at the moment.

"The most likely scenario that we have to guard against right now ends up being more of a lone wolf operation than a large, well-coordinated terrorist attack," Obama told CNN on Tuesday.

"When you've got one person who is deranged or driven by a hateful ideology, they can do a lot of damage and it's a lot harder to trace those lone wolf operators," added the president.

In past videos, Dyer stated that he’s “not going to be hiding from my command anymore,” saying that if the ATF, FBI or anyone else wants him, he isn’t going to be afraid.

Now, however, Dyer is on the run.

In a three-page e-mail that he offered to his attorney on Monday, Dyer writes that this is his “final opportunity” to make a statement while alive.

"I have been pushed to the limits multiple times by law enforcement and the judicial system in an attempt to cause me to take violent action against them," writes Dyer. "If I do, I know I will be the monster they depict me as."

"Our judicial system is nothing more than a system of liars and crooks working under the color of the law, where the rich go free and the poor are made to suffer injustice. Something MUST be done to expose it," he adds.

The conspiracy against Dyer only escalated more last week when his home was burnt to the ground on Friday. KFOR News reports that his girlfriend was arrested on suspicious of arson.

A charge filed in January 2010 alleged that Dyers was in “possession of an unregistered destructive device,” a Colt M-203, 40 millimeter grenade launcher. That item was apprehended by authorities after they obtained a search warrant while arresting Dyer for rape on January 12, 2010. In April of that year Dyer was found not guilty on the possession charge.